Over the past two decades, the Mission: Impossible film franchise has become the reliable, comforting home that’s always ready to shelter Tom Cruise. No matter what turns his career takes, there’s always Ethan Hunt: the dogged Impossible Missions Force operative who always gives 110 percent, perpetually putting himself at risk to secure other people’s safety.
In a different era, Hunt would serve as a sort of Platonic action-hero ideal, and there wouldn’t be any need to dig past the archetype itself. But there’s been an interesting wrinkle in the franchise, starting with Brad Bird’s 2011 take, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Hunt has had to face the notion of consequences — and not just the usual ones, where if he fails, some madman...
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